Ideas for Educators - Idea Blog

Co-Teachers on a Stick

9/12/2016

Two middle school co-teachers in Wisconsin developed a fun way to engage students and add tactile input to their math lessons. They made stick puppets with their faces on them (this specific class had a Charlie Brown theme.)

Each student received one of each. As the co-teachers worked through various math problems with students, one teacher would offer a correct answer while the other would offer an incorrect answer. Students would have a moment to reflect or talk to a peer, and then be asked to decide which teacher was correct by holding up the corresponding stick puppet. Teachers would choose one or two students to explain their thinking before revealing the correct answer.

If you don't want your face on a stick, consider choosing a football team, a favorite color, or a celebrity to represent yourselves.

Options for Making Text More Accessible

9/12/2016

Tic-tac-toe menus are a popular approach to differentiation. The teacher creates a 3x3 grid and develops nine activities for students to choose from. Usually the choices address a variety of learning styles or ways of thinking. Students can be directed to choose one of nine activities, or aim for three in a row, as in the game tic-tac-toe.

Over the years I have created a wide range of these menus. Here’s one of my new favorites – a menu that provides options for accessing a piece of text in a variety of ways. This could be used for fiction or non-fiction material, and is flexible enough that some of the items could be replaced with other ideas, depending on your technology or grade level. Download it here.

Managing Differentiation in Your Classroom

9/12/2016

Many teachers like to offer students the ability to choose work that interests them, yet moves their learning forward. This can be a challenge to organize, especially when students are learning at various levels.

Here’s an idea developed by a 5th grade teacher in Arizona. She organizes various learning tasks by Appetizers, Main Courses and Desserts. Tasks are color-coded and have various point values. Linked to this are color-coded binders with worksheets and independent assignments. When the teacher conferences with a student, she will guide them to certain colors, based on their progress with learning targets.

How do you organize your options for students?

Can Overcrowded Classrooms Lead to Interdependence?

8/28/2016

A friend of mine has her largest fourth grade ever – 34 students! That’s a lot of nine-year olds! By the end of the first week she was feeling pulled in multiple directions. Too many students wanting help, with only one teacher to ask. Someone once said, “Necessity is the mother of invention,” and this seems very apt for this situation. So we put our heads together and came up with a few ideas.

First, the students developed a Classroom Yellow Pages board to advertise what skills they had to offer their peers. Now, if a student needs help, they will have some guidance about which classmate to turn to, rather than just asking a friend.

Second, we developed a Resource Checklist that students can keep on their desk. This checklist will remind students of the various resources in the room, other than the teacher. Students had guided practice with this, then were told that they will need to check off at least two items before approaching their teacher with a problem.

In a reflective discussion, my friend and I recognized that these strategies might work well, even for a small class. Teaching students to be resourceful and interdependent is always a good thing!

Piclits.com is a Creative Writing Site with Scaffolding

8/5/2016

PicLit from PicLits.com

See the full PicLit at PicLits.com

Looking for ways to support your struggling writers this coming school year? Check out www.piclits.com. This free site was developed by entrepreneur Terry Friedlander, with a goal to inspire and support creative writers. Beautiful images are matched with carefully selected keywords.

From their FAQS, an answer to the question "What is a PicLit?"

A “PicLit” is a combination of words placed on an image to capture the essence, story, and meaning of the picture. It can be a caption, a sentence, a story, a paragraph, a poem, a rap, a quotation, lyrics from a song, and more. You can create a PicLit using Drag-n-Drop keywords or Freestyle.

In the photo below, you can see one of the rich images, and below it a list of nouns, adjectives, adverbs and verbs that have been specifically identified for this photo. The list of universal words always remains the same. Students can simply drag and drop the words anywhere on the image, or they can switch to free style and type their own words.

As an educator, I love that students can be supported in their writing by choosing from a word bank, and by dragging and dropping. The choices of images and words are almost endless, so there is something to please everyone. I have found that Piclits motivate even the most reluctant writer.

Don't Co-Teach Until You've Done This!

7/20/2016

Co-teaching communication efforts should begin as soon as two or more individuals are considering co-teaching together. This might mean winter or spring of the year prior to implementation. But anyone who has been in education for more than a year know that things like co-teaching assignments might happen the day before school starts! Whenever you know who your co-teaching partner will be, take the time to discuss these 16 essential questions. I especially like #1 and #16.

(WARNING: Though it is common for teachers to feel that they know their colleagues well enough, conversation about the following topics will help to fill in gaps and avoid assumptions. Time constraints might cause teachers to feel that they can skip the talk and get right to the teaching. In the long run, this usually results in more time spent fixing problems arising out of false assumptions.)

Dig Deeper into the Content

6/24/2016

Here's an favorite post from two summers ago!

Local stores seem to be stocking the shelves with the fun toys of summer, so I thought I would share with you a strategy for getting students to dig a little deeper.

Obtain a plastic beach bucket and a handful of plastic shovels. On the scoot of each shovel, adhere a piece of paper with one of the following higher level thinking prompts.

Do you see any patterns?
Can you take a different perspective?
Have you noticed any trends?
Are there any ethical issues to consider?
What relationships are obvious? subtle?
Can you make connections across content areas?

Place the shovels in the bucket and carry it with you as you wander the room. If you find a student who is finished early, or just needs some higher level stimulation, ask them to take a shovel from the bucket and dig deeper into the content.

Have You Tried This Easy Idea for Paragraph Planning?

6/17/2016

Struggling students often hesitate to plan their writing on a graphic organizer. Writing ideas down on paper feels so permanent to a student who is unsure or lacks confidence. Technology provides some wonderful alternatives (e.g. SimpleMind), but if you don’t have easy access to devices, try this.

Replace your traditional graphic organizer with flexible sticky notes!

This photo shows one student’s plan for a 5 paragraph opinion essay with text-based evidence. Because the 3 paragraphs in the body would need the most detail, we created a tri-fold note catcher. Each paragraph was color-coded, with the main idea at the top and the supporting details below. Once notes were captured, students were able to move ideas around, changing the order of their ideas as they thought more deeply about how to sell their opinion.

All students were more engaged as they moved the sticky notes around and struggling students were more comfortable with the planning process.

Can Puzzle Obsession Increase Your Learning?

6/4/2016

I have just finished playing another hand of Solitaire, my fifth in a row. Before that it was several games of Red Herring and Cut the Rope. While I enjoy the win, it is more about the process for me - the puzzling, persevering, trying to figure it out. So, rather than quitting while I'm ahead, I continue on for another round.

Neuroscientists (Panksepp, et. al) explain this experience as the SEEKING System. As our brains engage in productive struggle, dopamine is released. Dopamine is one of the neurotransmitters that make us feel pleasure and a desire to persevere. Scientists used to believe that the largest release of dopamine occurred upon successful task completion. They now know that opioids are released upon completion instead. Opioids differ from dopamine in that they result in a boost, or high, that drops off quickly. Dopamine, a more long-lasting high, is released during the SEEKING, or puzzling, process.

How can we enhance this process during prescribed lessons? Many teachers struggle with trying to make scripted lessons more engaging for all students. In a recent unit, I tried three different ways to add some puzzling to the learning process. Each of these ideas could be developed for any content or grade level, with very little teacher prep. Students were attentive and highly motivated to complete the puzzles.

1. Crossword Puzzles – I used a free online puzzle maker to create a simple crossword puzzle with the key vocabulary words.

2. Fill in the Blank – I turned the learning target into a fill in the blank puzzle.

3. Wheel of Fortune – A variation on the t.v. show Wheel of Fortune. I provided some of the letters and then had teams compete to fill in the rest.

Dr. Seuss Summary

6/2/2016

For closure, I try to find a variety of creative ways to ask students to summarize their learning. I recently shared my "Celebrity Summaries" strategy with a group of teachers at the end of a workshop. Here's what one group created, using Dr. Seuss as their celebrity:

We learned inclusion, yes we did
Taking data, graphs and grids.
Get kids moving on their feet
So they don't miss a single beat.
The kids are "ours," not "yours" or "mine"
15% smarter off their behinds.
With games, techniques and apps galore
This class was surely not a bore!

Closure is so critical for struggling students, as it provides one last time to review the key concept for the day. So, instead of letting initial instruction or practice run to the bell, save a few minutes to review with a Celebrity Summary!